ACT Expo

Plus and Tier IV partner to tackle autonomy 2.0 in Japan

Plus and Tier IV Partner to Advance Autonomy 2.0 in Japan
(Photo: Plus/Tier IV)

Plus, an AI-based autonomous trucking software provider, and Tier IV, the world’s first open-source software for autonomous driving, announced a strategic partnership to develop autonomous driving solutions in Japan. The solution is slated to start with Level 4 autonomous trucks on Japan’s expressways and includes support from a Japanese government-led initiative to expedite the development of autonomous driving...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/plus-and-tier-iv-partner-to-tackle-autonomy-2-0-in-japan

Tesla to trucking industry: Step up your electric game

LAS VEGAS — The Advanced Clean Truck Expo is a come-all event. Until this year, Tesla has passed on attending.

The ACT Expo has outgrown the art deco charm of Long Beach and the “Disney-fied” atmosphere of Anaheim, California. This year, it moved to convention mecca with exhibitors filling the North Hall of the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center. It returns to Anaheim in 2025, occupying both halls of the convention center in 2025.

Dozens of battery electric, fuel-cell electric and alternative...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/tesla-to-trucking-industry-step-up-your-electric-game

Electric trucks: Sysco signs for record 800 Freightliner eCascadias

Driver's side view of white and green Freightliner eCascadia

Food distribution giant Sysco Corp.intends to purchase up to 800 Class 8 Freightliner eCascadia electric trucks from Daimler Truck North America, by far the largest order of battery-powered tractors in North America to date.

The booking is equal to roughly 80% of the 987 electric trucks ordered across all of Daimler Truck globally in 2021. And it suggests the nascent adoption of zero-tailpipe-emission commercial vehicles is moving into a higher gear.

“It seems like one of the bigger real orders...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/record-order-for-freightliner-electric-trucks

Truck Talk: There’s a grant for that edition

This week, several electric truck makers are guiding the grant-writing process to help customers afford battery-powered trucks; Nikola is fully in growth mode as the shadow of scandal lifts; a Lordstown Motors’ financial scorecard; and Daimler seals the deal to create a stand-alone truck company.

Taking help for grant-ed

The transition to heavy- and medium-duty electric vehicles is being helped along by generous grants to offset the high upfront cost of buying, or more often, leasing the...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truck-talk-theres-a-grant-for-that-edition

Truck Talk: Taking the high road edition

This week, Hyliion lets slide a slight; hydrogen fuel cells are everywhere, or it seems that way; and thermal imaging gets a look as a way to enhance autonomous trucking perception.

Yeah, he meant it

Like most conferences, in person or virtual, panel discussions prevailed at last week’s Advanced Clean Transportation Expo. One exchange that didn’t happen stood out.

Hyliion Holdings founder and CEO Thomas Healy was making his first of several appearances during the week, talking up his company’s...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truck-talk-taking-the-high-road-edition

BrightDrop and GM sibling Cruise Automation talking about driverless delivery

General Motors siblings BrightDrop and Cruise Automation are talking about how driverless technology could fit with commercial vehicles like the electric vans BrightDrop will begin delivering to FedEx in December.

“Cruise is starting on ride-share, but they have investment from Walmart,” BrightDrop CEO Travis Katz told FreightWaves in an interview at the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo last week in Long Beach, California.

“Walmart is in the delivery business so you can imagine their ideas...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/brightdrop-and-gm-sibling-cruise-automation-talking-about-driverless-delivery

Truck Talk: Tasty leftovers edition

This week’s Advanced Clean Transportation Expo expounded on two major electrification themes: the higher power and faster infrastructure critical to speed the adoption of battery-powered trucks, and the more rapid arrival of hydrogen-powered fuel cells, once laughed off as a science project always 10 years away.

Running a live conference during a resurgent pandemic

In Long Beach, California, this week, the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo managed to pull off a live event even as rising...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truck-talk-tasty-leftovers-edition

ACT Expo: Shell Starship 2.0 — a diesel intruder at an electric truck show

LONG BEACH, Calif. — In the 1987 film “The Untouchables,” the late actor Sean Connery sarcastically accused a would-be assailant of bringing “a knife to a gunfight.”

The presence of the diesel-powered Shell Starship 2.0 at this week’s Advanced Clean Transportation Expo is a sort of metaphor for the famous scene, a pivotal moment in the Prohibition-era crime drama.

Diesel fuel is no more the point of Shell’s futuristic technology test bed for freight efficiency than the knife-wielding mobster who...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/act-expo-shell-starship-20-a-diesel-intruder-at-an-electric-truck-show

ACT Expo: Exclusive first ride in Hyzon hydrogen-powered fuel cell truck

CARSON, Calif. — Is this thing running?

The fuel cell powertrain in the Hyzon Motors Class 8 Freightliner 2022 Cascadia-based demonstration truck is so quiet that a windows-down ride on Interstate 405 in Southern California allowed shouting-free conversation. 

Oh, and the truck emits no pollution, tailpipe or otherwise. Post-drive water vapor under the parked truck doesn’t count. It could be consumed, but it would taste icky.

Water vapor is the only emission from Hyzon Motors’ Class 8...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/act-expo-exclusive-first-ride-in-hyzon-hydrogen-powered-fuel-cell-truck